Al-Qaida Claims U.S. Slaying and Hostage

from apnews.com

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A purported al-Qaida statement Saturday claimed the terror group had kidnapped one American man in the Saudi capital and killed another American. It threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi prisoners. Earlier Saturday, an American identified by the U.S. Embassy as Kenneth Scroggs was shot and killed as he pulled his car into the garage of his Riyadh home. The statement claimed al-Qaida had killed an American at his house but did not identify him. The U.S. Embassy confirmed an American was missing but would not identify him. "We do have reports of a missing American," an embassy spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are working with local authorities to find him and are in touch with his family." The al-Qaida statement, posted late Saturday on an Islamic Web site, showed a passport-size photo of a brown-haired man and a business card bearing the name Paul M. Johnson. It said he was born in 1955. The statement said the terror group would deal with the hostage just as "the Americans dealt with our brothers in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib" - a reference to sexual and other alleged abuses of Iraqi and Muslim prisoners by U.S. troops. The statement said Johnson is one of four experts in Saudi Arabia working on developing Apache helicopter systems and that the American killed worked in the same industry. "Everybody knows that these helicopters are used by the Americans, their Zionist allies and the apostates to kill Muslims, terrorizing them and displacing them in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq," the statement said. "The mujaheddin also managed to kill another American who is working as a manager in the same military sector where the hostage was working. The mujaheddin monitored him and killed him in his house." The statement was signed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the same group that claimed responsibility for a shooting and hostage-taking spree in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar on May 29-30, killing 22 people. It said it would release a video tape later to list its demands and show Johnson's confessions. The statement could not immediately be verified. In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said reports of a missing American were being investigated.

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